Favorite outdoor memory: When I was 13 , I was backpacking with a group in Southern New Mexico, and we had hiked up to the top of this rock outcropping. It is called "The Tooth of Time," and we are watching a thunderstorm roll in over this desert area, and of course at 13 you think you're indestructible. Then somebody pointed out that we are at the highest point around there ... It took us like an hour and a half to get up, we got down in like 15 minutes, jumping boulder to boulder.

Close encounter: When I was 13 and we were backpacking. We were sitting, having lunch, and the group had gone off to do something else, and I was still sitting having lunch, and I hear this rustling and snorting behind me. I was thinking one of the guys from my group is coming back up to pull some practical joke, and I turned around and there is a giant bear behind me. The first bear I ever saw, because I was not living here at that time. So I slowly backed up, and stupid me, grabbed my camera, and I was pulling it up out of my backpack. I was going to take a picture but then decided not to because I was afraid that the flash would go off and make the bear angry.

Favorite outdoor spot: I love the view from up on Mount Roberts Tramway, it is quiet beautiful up there. I also enjoy Mesa Verde National Park. Grand Canyon, watching a thunderstorm roll in. It is quite unique to really see a thunderstorm coming in over the Grand Canyon.

Outsiders is a weekly profile in the Juneau Empire's Outdoors section.